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EQUALITY OF EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY 
FOR ALABAMA BOYS AND GIRLS 

'A PLEA FOR LOCAL TAXATION AND 
THE LOCAL TAX AMENDMENT 




AN ADDRESS 

Delivered at the Final Meeting of the 
Jefferson County Teachers Associa- 
tion, Birmingham, Alabama, 
May 1, 1915. 



BY 

WM. F. FEAGIN, 

Superintendent of Education, 

Montgomery, Alabama. 



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A PLEA FOR LOCAL TAXATION 



OME one has said that it ought not to be 
necessary to discuss at length with any 
intelligent right-feeling man the right 
of every child to have the chance to 
make the most of his God-given faculties by 
education and the duty of the State and of the 
community to give him this chance by provid- 
ing adequate means for his education. 

In endeavoring to determine whether or not 
Alabama's public school system measures up 
to such an ideal, three lines of inquiry are per- 
tinent: 

1. How many children are in school and how 
many are out of school? 

2. What character of teachers are employed 
in the schools? 

3. What kind of school buildings and equip- 
ment are in use? 

If we are in earnest about examining into 
our conditions and seek the underlying causes 
for our present humble status, we shall not 
have to go very far to discover them. 

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1. POOR ATTENDANCE: We have in Ala- 
bama 432,551 white children of school age and 
more than one-fifth of them, or in round num- 
bers 90,000, did not so much as enter school for ^ 
a single day last year. Those who did go at- 
tended for only three-fourths of the time the 
schools were in session and if the aggregate 
number of days attended could have been par- 
celed out among all the white children of '^^ 
school age, the share of each would have been 
but sixty days. This is only another way of 
saying in the final analysis that our schools 
are at best not quite half as efficient as they 
ought to be in bringing an education within 
the reach of our sons and daughters or in 
bringing our sons and daughters within the 
reach of an education. 

2. SHORT SCHOOL TERMS: Only five 
states fall below Alabama in the number of 
days the public schools are open each year. 
Our average school term for white children is 
only 135 days, and for rural districts alone, 
118 days. Still more significant is the fact 
that in a number of the northern counties 
where the white population largely predomi- 
nates, the school term often falls below 100 
days. This means that the children have only 
one-third of the year in which they may exer- 
cise any option about school attendance, and 
that adequate educational opportunity is far 
from being offered is further attested by the 
fact that if all the pupils in these counties 
were to enter school, the facilities would be 



hopelessly inadequate. There are just two 
^vays for lengthening our school terms: Either 
we must provide more money, or we must 
make the money we have go further. The lat- 
r course would mean the further impairment 
the already scant provision. 

;. POOR SCHOOLHOUSES AND EQUIP- 
MENT: In my official capacity, I am contin- 
ually visiting rural communities and would 
naturally expect that when seeking to enter- 
tain me, friends would conduct me to the com- 
munity schoolhouse. It is noticeable, how- 
ever, that they take much more pleasure in 
showing me their poultry, pigs, stock, and 
(2:rowing crops. We all enjoy looking upon good 
thoroughbred "mortgage lifters;'' they hold 
an important place in farm economy, but why 
do these friends take me to the barnyard or 
field rather than to the schoolhouse? There is 
but one answer— THAT IS WHERE THEY 
HAVE INVESTED THEIR MONEY. Not 
until our people have invested their money in 
thoroughbred school buildings will they take 
the same pride in their schools as they now 
take in the products of the farm. 

Is it any wonder that the attendance is poor 
when the average rural community has less in- 
vested in the school plant than the price of the 
ordinary automobile, and spends for its main- 
tenance, including the teacher's salary, less 
than the owner for the upkeep of his ma- 
chine? The average amount invested in 

I 



school property for each child of school age is 
less than $11.00, almost the lowest of all the 
states, as against the maximum of $100 in 
Massachusetts and New York. If, as has 
been said, the amount a state has invested in 
public school buildings and grounds is the best 
index of its interest in education, what is there 
but painful humiliation in the fact that Ala- 
bama ranks forty-fourth among the states of 
the Union in the character of buildings and 
equipment she provides for her children? 

4. MEAGER EXPENDITURE FOR EACH 
CHILD: The more money a state invests ju- 
diciously in its schools, the more excellencies 
they are likely to possess. There are states I 
that are investing more than $30.00 annually 
for each child in school, or eight times as 
much as Alabama, — North and South Carolina 
falling below. Only a fool would deny that in 
the long run, states, like individuals, get pret- 
ty nearly what they pay for; and this being 
the case, we have no right to expect to make a ; 
respectable showing in the sisterhood of states ? 
so long as we spend upon each child enrolled 
in school a daily pittance of less than eight 
cents, while a number of other states spend : 
three and four times this amount. Are Ala- 
bama children three or four times as bright as 
other children, — or will a dollar in Alabama go 
three or four times as far as a dollar in othei 
states? Unless one of these alternatives be 
true, we must plead guilty to the charge of 
stinginess, ignorance or poverty. 



5. POOR TEACHERS ON POOR SALA- 
RIES: So lon^ as more than two-thirds of 
oyr white teachers hold only second or third 
grade certificates; so long as these teachers 
remain a trifle more than a year at each school 
taught; so long as four years is the average 
length of service in our schools; so long as 
one-fourth of our teachers have not gone be- 
yond the elementary school of seven grades, 
and so long as 1,200 of the 1,500 beginning 
teachers each year have never had any profes- 
sional training whatsoever, we have no right 
to hope for anything but the poorest of 
teaching and the poorest of schools. Nor is 
that so much a reflection upon those engaged 
in teaching as upon the niggardliness and un- 
wisdom of those who are responsible for 
financing the schools? 

Alabama is less interested in the education 
of her children than is the country as a whole 
in almost any other vocation. They tell us 
that the average annual pay of a carpenter is 
$802; of a coal miner, $600; of a factory-hand, 
$550; of a common laborer, $513. Even the 
convicts in our mines are let out by contract 
for something like $400 per year; and yet we 
continue to pay the men and women who teach 
in our rural schools the miserly sums of $337 
and $293, respectively, for a yearns work. A 
study of the salaries paid our teachers, in ef- 
fect, will show that they have been decreased 
since the beginning of this century. A report 
from the United States Bureau of Education 



sets out the fact that, based upon prices in'' 
1897, wholesale prices in 1911 had increased 
44% over the year 1907, while retail pric^ii 
had increased 50%, and there has been a totallf ^ 
increase in retail prices since 1897 of 62%. 



We may not deny that the teacher's salary is 
both an index of the teacher's ability and the 
stamp of approval which the community places 
upon the teacher and the school. That our 
present teaching force is being paid all it is 
worth is not the question; the fact remains 
that so far as the education of our children is 
concerned, we neither ask for nor desire, — 
much less deserve, efficient service. 

The influence the above deplorable condi- 
tions might reasonably be expected to have on 
our literacy is fully borne out by the facts: 
Only five states fall below Alabama in white 
illiteracy, and only one in colored illiteracy. 
We cannot, therefore, as some have tried to do, 
justify our humble position as to intelligence 
by the presence of our colored population. We 
may disregard entirely the 31,661 white men 
and the 33,765 white women in Alabama who 
cannot read and \vrite, and think only of the 
27,000 children between the ages of ten and 
twenty who cannot know firsthand the con- 
tents of any book or the meaning of any 
printed characters, and we still have the 
strongest possible indictment against Ala- 
bama for not offering even respectable educa- 
ional opportunities to her sons and daughters. 



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It is not fair to assume that the penurious 
policy we are following is either studied or un- 
derstood. The fact is, we have not looked be- 
yond our own community, do not know what 
is going on elsewhere, and are unwilling to lis- 
ten to the experience of others. If our people 
could see the wonderful strides that are being 
made in states naturally less fortunate than 
'ours, and with a population more heterogene- 
ous and transient; if we only had eyes to see 
what is going on across the border lines of our 
own state even, there is no doubt that we 
would get a new conception of duty and adopt 
a new course of action. 



The one supreme condition which overshad- 
ows all others, the one obstacle which bars all 
substantial progress, is lack of funds for a 
business-like administration of our schools. 
No investment in any other field could produce 
so large returns. More money would give us 
better schools; better schools would give us 
better citizens; better citizens would produce 
more money, — a never-ending beneficent cir- 
cle. 

Admitting that the improvement of educa- 
tional conditions in Alabama is dependent upon 
idditional revenue, the question arises as to 
low we should best go about raising it. 
' School funds in the United States are derived, 
ipon the whole, as follows: 

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From local taxes, including county and 

district 72< 

From state taxes 15 < 

From permanent funds 6< 

From other sources 7' 

The proportion of funds derived from loc 
taxes varies from a minimum of 24% in Al 
bama to a maximum of 97% in Massachusetl 
and the proportion derived from state tax 
varies from a minimum of nothing in eig 
states to a maximum of 70% in Alabama. Do 
not the fact that the Alabama practice ru 
directly counter to the general practice in t 
United States, coupled with the low standi: 
of our state in education, suggest that o 
method of raising revenue should under i 
rigid investigation and perhaps radical re( 
ganization ? 

In the transition from that conception of 
ucation which regarded it as a personal bem 
for which those who received it should pay, 
the present democratic theory that it is a pi 
lie benefit for which the public should p 
some principles have become so well defii 
that they are universally accepted as axici 
atic. ' 



"Religion, morality, and knowledge be 
necessary to good government and the haj 
ness of mankind, schools and the means of 
ucation shall forever be encouraged," 

10 



**But the indigence of the greater number 
disabling them from educating at their own 
expense those of their children whom Nature 
has fitly formed and disposed to become use- 
ful instruments of the public, it is better that 
such should be sought for and educated at the 
common expense of all than that the happiness 
of all should be confided to the weak or the 
wicked." 

*The wealth of the state should be taxed to 
educate the children of the state. A free com- 
mon school education is the birthright of every 
American child, and this should be provided 
for by the taxation of property without refer- 
ence to whether the owner has children to be 
educated or not." 

"The increased cost of living and the stead- 
ily increasing number and scope of educa- 
tional activities, have rendered it necessary 
that a larger expenditure be made for schools 
than in the past. It therefore becomes imper- 
ative that all communities in the United 
States recognize, as many have already done, 
that more money must be contributed and ex- 
pended for schools, both locally and by the 
state, if our young people are to have that 
kind and quality of education demanded by the 
times." 

"The mark of the true patriot is found in a 
willingness to pay a just share of tax for the 
support of the government and the education 
of the people." 

11 



In the light of these principles and the con- 
ditions prevailing in Alabama, it is but fair to 
say that the problem of developing our school 
finances so as to guarantee the perpetuity of 
our democratic government is that of deter- 
mining how our revenues are to be increased 
perpetually to meet the gradually increasing 
burdens. The problem of increasing the pro- 
duction of wealth is laid at the door of our 
public school system. That the obligation of 
educating the children of our state should rest 
upon the state on the basis of wealth, has a 
new meaning when the relation between prog- 
ress and public education is understood. 

Practice and experience in America show 
that for the provision of funds to maintain 
schools, there should be: 

1. Sufficient local taxation, county and dis- 
trict, to encourage local pride and initiative. 

2. Sufficient state taxation to equalize edu- 
cational advantages by aiding poorer commu- 
nities. 






The Conference for Education in the South, 
composed of the leading business men and ed- 
ucators of the Southern States, and the South- 
ern Educational Association, the leading expo-, 
nent of educational ideals in the South, at 
their joint session in Louisville in 1914, adopt- 
ed a report formulated by their standing com- 
mittees, outlining a state school system, its ad- 

12 



ministration and finance for Southern States, 
which contained among other things, the fol- 
lowing: 

^The state as a whole should guarantee an 
educational opportunity to all her children re- 
gardless of the wealth or poverty of the par- 
ticular county or district in which they live. 
The state, the county, and the school district 
should each supply a proper quota of the funds 
for the proper maintenance of the schools.'* 

If the resources of the state were equally 
distributed and could be kept so; if the land 
were uniformly improved and could remain so; 
if the wealth of the state were parceled out on 
a per capita basis and provision were made 
for automatically equalizing it in the future, 
we might then confine our source of revenue to 
one unit, provided that such a unit should be 
the smallest one required to maintain an ap- 
proved rural school. But so long as our re- 
sources are varied, our activities diversified, 
and our desires different, to limit ourselves to 
any one plan for raising revenue with which to 
finance our schools and to disburse the funds 
on a per capita basis to the several counties 
of the state, would mean that certain geo- 
graphical divisions of the state would of ne- 
cessity be discriminated against, and therefore 
arrayed against certain other geographical 
divisions. 

A uniform state tax is the most satisfactory 
way to equalize educational opportunity within 

13 



certain limitations. But when we take into 
consideration the fact that the funds in Ala- 
bama are apportioned to the counties on a per 
capita basis and are thereupon distributed by 
the county boards upon a race basis, we know 
that the white children in so-called "white'^ 
counties and the negro children in so-called 
"black" counties receive only a slender portion. 

An examination of the statistics contained 
in the Annual Report of the Department of 
Education for the year 1913-14 will show that 
the amounts expended for teachers' salaries 
for each child enrolled in the public schools of 
six counties, including three so-called "white" 
counties and three Black Belt counties, to- 
gether with the ranking of each county for the 
sixty-seven counties of the state, in the amount 
so expended, are as follows: 

GROUP 1. 
County. Rank. Per Capita. 

Winston 67 $ 3.75 k 

Marion 66 4.09 " 

Cullman 65 4.68 

GROUP 2. 

Lowndes 1 36.61 

Bullock 2 31.61 

Dallas 4 29.00^ 

It will be observed that the amount expend- 
ed for each white child varies from six to ten 
times as much for the counties in the second 
group as for the counties in the first group,. 

14 i; 



and if the investigation is carried a little fur- 
ther, it may be found that the corresponding 
amount expended in Lowndes for negro chil- 
dren is $2,13, Bullock $1.35, and Dallas, $2.16. 

Again, when we compare the length of 
school terms for white children, we find the 
schools to be in session in these counties, as 
follows: 

GROUP 1. 

Winston 85 days 

Marion 88 days 

Cullman 124 days 

GROUP 2. 

Lowndes _ 147 days 

Bullock 168 days 

Dallas _ 172 days 

The term for the Black Belt counties is seen 
to vary from four months to two months and a 
half longer than in the white counties. 

In the matter of the number of pupils each 
teacher is required to handle in the white 
schools of these counties, the same is found 
to be as follows: 

GROUP 1. 

Winston 45 

Marion 50 

Cullman 52 

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/ 
/ 

GROUP 2. / 

Lowndes .^15 

Bullock 23 

Dallas 24 

A teacher in Winston county is required to 
handle thirty more pupils than a teacher in 
Lowndes county, while a teacher in Cullman 
county is required to handle twenty-eight more 
pupils than a teacher in Dallas county, and it 
may also be ascertained that a negro teacher 
in Bullock county is required to handle eighty- 
eight pupils, or thirty-six more than a white 
teacher in Cullman county. We would expect 
to find the qualifications of the teachers in the 
first group of counties to be inferior to those 
in the second group of counties, and the facts 
sustain the conclusion. The percentages of the 
whole teaching force in the three counties 
holding first grade and life certificates follow: 

GROUP 1. 

Winston „ 23% 

Marion 29% 

Cullman '. 11% 

GROUP 2. 

Lowndes 48% 

Bullock 71% 

Dallas : 58% 

Another basis for estimating the character 
of the work done in these several counties 
might be the salaries paid the teachers, which 
are as follows: 

16 



GROUP 1. 

Male. Female. 

Winston $176 $145 

Marion 209 165 

Cullman 261 261 

GROUP 2. 

Lowndes „ 762 424 

Bullock 904 477 

Dallas 665 436 

If we view these tables as a whole, we find 
that a child in Winston county will probably 
have a teacher receiving not less than $145 
nor more than $176, holding a third grade cer- 
tificate, with forty-five pupils to be taught for 
a term of eighty-five days in the year, while a 
pupil in Lowndes county will probably have a 
teacher receiving a salary from $424 to $762, 
holding either a first or second grade certifi- 
cate, with only fifteen pupils in school and for 
a term of 147 days. For the child in Winston 
county, the state appropriation and the county 
one-mill tax together provide the princely 
sum of $3.75, while for the Lowndes county 
child the state alone contributes $36.61. Na 
fair-minded man in Alabama would claim for a. 
moment that the state has any right to dis- 
criminate in any such fashion against two 
children, both of whom are sooner or later to 
face the responsibilities of citizenship, and no 
man who has the interest of his children at 
heart could be expected to settle in Winston 
county when the odds are so much more fa- 
vorable for the education of his children in 

17 



Lowndes. We boast of our democracy and of 
our equality of educational opportunity, but 
there can be no such thing as equality of edu- 
cational opportunity in Alabama so long as a 
constitutional inhibition in effect says that a 
county like Winston, which has done all the 
law will let it do, shall receive only one-tenth 
the amount for each child in school that 
Lowndes county receives. 

These tables, taken with the statistics of 
white literacy found in the report, also show 
that intelligence varies as the amount expend- 
ed for each child increases. This may be seen 
from the table below in which the rank of the 
six counties as compared with the sixty-seven 
counties of the state as a whole, is given both 
in the amount expended and in literacy: 

GROUP 1. 
County. Rank as to Amt. Exp. Lit. 

Winston 67 57 

Marion 66 49 

Cullman 65 46 

GROUP 2. 

Lowndes 1 1 

Bullock 2 7 

Dallas 4 2 

While the rank in the two items is identical 
in only one case, the parallelism is so close as 
to give unmistakable evidence that to increase 
intelligence we must increase the amount ex- 
pended on the individual childn 



The absolute unfairness of the educational 
opportunity of a child in a so-called ^'white" 
county as compared with that of a child in the 
Black Belt county is clearly shown in the col- 
umns below in the amounts paid into the state 
treasury for school purposes by these counties, 
the three-mill constitutional tax, when con- 
trasted with the amounts apportioned to each 
county for school purposes from the state 
treasury and the excess that each county re- 
ceives over and above the amount paid in: 

GROUP 1. 

Amount State Appor- 
Paid Into tionment 
County. State Treasury, to County. Excess. 

Winston $ 6,252 $12,864 $ 6,602 

Marion 10,460 17,542 7,082 

Cullman 18,624 27,505 8,881 

GROUP 2. 

Lowndes 13,060 36,130 23,070 

Bullock 15,135 34,145 19,010 

Dallas 40,309 54,459 14,150 

It will be noted that all of these counties re- 
ceive more money from the state treasury for 
their schools than they pay in. This excess is 
derived, for the most part, from the counties of 
Jefferson, Mobile and Montgomery, which pay 
in, respectively, $193,699, $67,000, and $14,000 
more than they receive back again. Inasmuch 
as the Black Belt counties receive from two to 
three times as much as the white counties 
mentioned, can there be any earthly justifica- 

19 



tion for such favoritism when all of the six 
counties are recipients of the bounties of the 
counties of Jefferson, Mobile and Montgom- 
ery? 

No one will deny that it is absolutely out of 
the question to think of an increase in the 
state tax at present. The fact that the condi- 
tional appropriations to public schools have 
not been released because of a depleted treas- 
ury is the only evidence needed to sustain this 
contention. But even if it were possible to have 
money given out at long range from Mont- 
gomery, it would be unwise to do so for a con- 
siderable number of counties in the state. 

The purpose of the state tax is to require 
the strong to help the weak. Conditions are 
so different, occupations and industries so va- 
ried, and wealth is so unevenly distributed, 
that only by that pooling of effort which the 
state tax makes possible can a satisfactory ap- 
proach be made toward equalizing the burden 
of maintaining public education which is for 
the general good of alL Just as all true phil- 
anthropy requires on the part of the benefici- 
ary a response in keeping with his ability, so 
the state should distribute aid only where it is 
needed and only to such a degree as will leave 
room for the stimulation of healthy local in- 
terest and initiative. The constitutional pro- 
vision requiring that the funds be apportioned 
to the counties on a per capita basis recognizes 
the equality of all children in the eyes of the 

20 



law, but the disbursement of the funds in the 
county recognizes the inequality of conditions 
prevailing in the county and gives the county 
board of education the opportunity to equal- 
ize educational opportunity amid divergent 
conditions. The present state tax is sufficient 
to give certain counties in w^hich the negro 
population is relatively large, and under the 
prevailing plan of apportionment, enough 
funds to run their schools for eight months, 
while in certain other counties the schools are 
barely able to continue for four months. If 
the law assumes that educational conditions in 
the counties need leveling up, is there any rea- 
son why the same admission should not be 
made for the state where conditions are even 
more divergent than in any of its counties ? 

To raise the state tax and to continue to ap- 
portion it upon the present constitutional ba- 
sis, merely means we would encourage waste 
and invite graft and besides entirely crush out 
local effort and support in some counties, inas- 
much as we should have to double the amount 
of the tax to provide an eight-months' term in 
our poorer counties. In other words, we must 
either change our basis of apportionment or 
we must provide other machinery for raising 
revenue if we are to give the children in our 
poorer counties a square deal. The door of 
legal opportunity is now closed in the faces of 
these children, and they must forever be han- 
dicapped so long as their only opportunity for 
a fair elementary education is contingent upon 

21 



excessive tuition fees and supplements, which 
many of them are unable to pay and which 
always, in any community, are unequally en- 
forced and unfairly dodged. It is a bold state- 
ment, but the facts abundantly justify it, 
either the per capita plan of apportioning 
funds should be changed or the poorer counties 
of the state should have individual opportunity 
for equitably raising revenue for the support 
of their schools. 

Our only defense of the state tax is that it 
equalizes the burdens and advantages of edu- 
cation. The inequalities existing in the state 
are more pronounced, it may be, but certainly 
no more real than they are in any county of 
the state. The most casual glance at the map 
of Alabama will show that within the bounds 
of a single county there are areas which will 
always support a large and wealthy popula- 
tion, while there are other regions where the 
population will continue sparse and the per 
capita wealth small. Again, the location of 
railroads, mines, mills, and factories will tend 
to further increase the disparity between ad- 
jacent sections. Fortunately or unfortunately, 
the distribution of children follows other lines. 
In all of these localities, there are children to 
be trained and schools to be run. With the 
county as a unit, it will be possible to equalize 
the difference in educational opportunity over 
a relatively large area, thereby making the 
town and the rural communities in the rich 
and the poor districts, co-operate to the degree 

22 



that their mutual dependence and relationship 
justify. Since our own wealth comes from the 
soil through education, and our assurance of 
its possession depends upon the intelligence of 
the entire population, and inasmuch as the 
child with scant education will have the same 
privilege and responsibility at the ballot-box 
as the child with a liberal education, there is 
no argument that will justify the failure, much 
less the refusal to allow any county in the 
state to vote upon itself a tax for giving at 
least an elementary education to every boy 
and girl within its bounds. 

Looking towards the removal of this consti- 
tutional inhibition which has tended to keep 
Alabama at the foot of the educational ladder, 
our Legislature has passed a bill authorizing 
the submission of an amendment to the people 
of the state, authorizing any county upon the 
vote of the qualified electors, to levy a tax, not 
to exceed three mills, for educational purposes, 
with the further proviso that when any county 
is levying as much as three mills, any district 
in the county, with the approval of the county 
board of education, may levy a tax for educa- 
tional purposes in the district to be voted by 
the electors, not to exceed three mills. 

A careful reading of the bill will show that 
while the maximum is three mills, any tax not 
exceeding that amount may be voted, if the 
county so desires, making the measure flexible 
enough to care for counties which need but lit- 

23 



tie additional revenue, and for other counties 
which need more. The measure also makes 
the same provision in case of districts which 
may wish to avail themselves of better oppor- 
tunities than the state and the county funds 
together will provide. 

It may be that some cities in the state will 
be disposed to fight the adoption of the amend- 
ment inasmuch as their burdens would be 
lighter if they could directly vote a district 
tax. Experience has shown that wherever the 
district tax precedes the county tax, the 
wealthier districts have fortified themselves 
with a levy sufficient to meet their own needs 
and have later resisted the levying of a county 
tax, just as certain wealthier counties which 
have levied enough funds to maintain their 
own schools have vigorously fought a state tax 
which would require them to assist other un- 
fortunate counties in maintaining their 
schools. 

We have in Alabama a better educational 
opportunity than most of the states of the 
Union, for the reason that we already have the 
state tax and are working downward towards 
local initiative and effort; unless forsooth, we 
have been dependent upon the state treasury 
so long that we shall be unwilling to carry any 
part of the burden. In most of the other states 
where the large percentage of revenue is 
raised locally, the sense of self-sufficiency and 
independence has been so strongly developed 

24 



that they are unwilling to assist the poorer lo- 
calities in equalizing educational opportunity. ' 

The cities of Alabama have no right to build 
a wall around themselves in the matter of rais- 
ing revenue unless they are willing to confine 
the area from which they derive their support 
within this selfsame wall. To allow these cit- 
ies to draw the best blood of the county to the 
municipality, to derive their wealth from the 
territory round about, without any obligation 
to give a portion of it back in return is a pol- 
icy too selfish and too culpable to admit of any 
defense. The city is dependent upon the coun- 
try and it owes the country at least the same 
kind of educational opportunity and privilege 
that it sets up for its own children. 

It has required the best efforts of the friends 
of education in the state to secure the passage 
of the bill authorizing the submission of this 
amendment after a campaign extending over 
more than a quarter of a century. It remains 
to see whether the taxpayers of Alabama are 
willing to give to any county and to any dis- 
tricts thereof the right to say whether they 
will provide a reasonable amount of educa- 
tional opportunity upon their own initiative 
and at their own expense. The county that 
has enough funds to equip and finance its 
schools will not be affected at all and under no 
condition can any tax be levied until the same 
has been duly advertised and voted by a ma- 
jority of the qualified electors within the area 

26 



concerned. There is a sentiment against tax- 
ation and even the possibility of taxation, so 
much so that for very many people, reform 
means legislation which will make the other 
fellow pay the taxes. This is undemocratic 
and is founded upon prejudice, passion and 
narrow-mindedness. Taxation for schools is 
not a political question, in the restricted use 
of the term, nor is it a party measure, in the 
narrow use of that term. It is merely a pro- 
vision for offering the same fair chance and 
square deal to the ragged, barefoot boy on the 
hillside that the state already offers to. his city 
cousin; the same provision for intelligent 
motherhood to the pale-faced working-girl of 
a white county, as to her healthy cousin in the 
Black Belt. 

If we sum it all up, the humble status of 
public education in Alabama is the logical 
outcome of our practical repudiation of the 
doctrine of local self-government with its at- 
tendant apathy of public opinion and poverty 
of public revenue. 

The only remedial measure is local taxation, 
whose chief virtue is that it develops the peo- 
ple through their efforts to govern themselves. 
Local taxation will provide increased revenue 
and that is imperative, but "Its finest fruit will 
be the personal interest each citizen will ac- 
quire for the betterment of the school, the be- 
lief which will come to prevail that the schools 
are of the people, for the people, and by the 

26 



people, and the abiding conviction that the peo- 
ple are the repositories of their children's wel- 
fare/' 

It remains for the taxpayers of Alabama to 
say whether she shall accept the doctrine of 
democracy in education, and let them forever 
remember that any government by whatever 
name it may be called that prevents the people 
from improving their conditions is despotic 
and undemocratic. 

Are we too poor to maintain schools? "The 
man who says so is the perpetuator of poverty. 
It is the doctrine which has kept us poor, 
which has driven more and more wealth from 
the State and kept more away than any polit- 
ical doctrine ever cost us." 

Are we too poor to maintain schools? *The 
man who says so is the promoter of crime; for 
every dollar we save in education we shall 
spend five in prosecutions, in prisons, in penal 
settlements." Ignorance, unproductiveness 
and crime are antagonistic to society. A good 
teacher, a good schoolhouse and good equip- 
ment are their deadly foes. The means with 
which to banish them from every community 
in Alabama depend upon the successful issue 
of the local tax amendment. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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